The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which undertakes activities for standardizing recent mobile communication systems, discusses System Architecture Enhancement (SAE), which is system architecture of the Long Term Evolution (LTE). 3GPP is in the process of creating specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS), which realizes an all-IP architecture. Note that a core network of LTE is called an Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
Furthermore, 3GPP recently discusses a Machine to Machine (M2M) communication technology. Note that the M2M communication may be machine-machine type communication. 3GPP discusses a Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT), in particular, as a technology for supporting Internet of Things (IoT) in a cellular network of 3GPP.
The IoT includes a mobile phone terminal such as a smartphone, and indicates various IT devices such as a personal computer and a sensor device. In CIoT, technical problems for connecting such various terminal devices to a cellular network are extracted, and solutions are standardized.
For example, CIoT is demanded to optimize communication procedures for a terminal needed to increase the efficiency of power consumption so that a battery can be maintained for several years, to cope with communication in an indoor or underground state, and to provide connectivity to a large amount of terminals produced by inexpensive mass production. Furthermore, in CIoT, supporting low data rate communication with a simple end node is cited as a required condition.
Note that terminals allowed to connect to a 3GPP core network are referred to CIoT terminals herein.